Illusions of Mortality
by Abby82
Summary: Blood reveals even the most well hidden dreams. Post-Last Knight. DarkNN.


**illusions of mortality  
by abby**

**category:** DarkNN, post-Last Knight**  
story prompt:** [F_orever Knight_] Natalie/Nick, children**  
rating:** R for sexual situations**  
disclaimer: **I'm only borrowing them, no money is being made. Ownership lies elsewhere. _Forever Knight _was created by Jim Parriott & Barney Cohen.**  
author's note:** written for oxoniensis' Porn Battle VII (The Seven Deadly Sins) on livejournal; this was a quickie and written in about a day, therefore it's not beta'd  
**word count:** 1702  
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**summary:** _Blood reveals even the most well hidden dreams._

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The house is silent when Nick arrives home.

Salt air wafts in through the open windows. Gossamer curtains billow out like wisps of smoke into the comfortably furnished room. He'll have to close them soon and seal off the house from the day's encroaching arrival.

Nick hates the dawn as much as he loves it. Sunlight is death to any vampire but still he yearns for its warmth…like always.

This time there's no cityscape for the dawning sun to crest over. No landlocked great lake, only the ocean and a land with a long maritime lineage. Nick wanted privacy and seclusion in his new home. But this time he wouldn't be alone. He had Natalie by his side.

Nova Scotia welcomed them with open arms. It was a return to teaching for him and a small emergency room assignment for Natalie.

It was a good place to start over and a good place for them.

Nick turns from his place near a window when he feels Natalie's presence. She's a specter in white, standing on the wooden staircase. A silk robe drapes over her body. Long, curly hair trails down Natalie's back. Her face is scrubbed clean and free of makeup. To his eyes, she has never looked more exquisite and she's his…finally.

Reaching out for her, Natalie answers by silently padding towards the stool where he sits. Nick laces his fingers with hers and pulls her towards him. His other hand plays with the sash holding her robe together.

"How was your night?" he asks after kissing her knuckles. Nick runs her fingers by his lips, momentarily sucking lightly on one before moving to the next.

"Almost uneventful," she manages out, distracted by his actions. "Vacationing family got sideswiped at an intersection. A couple of bumps and bruises on the kids and the parents were shaken up but otherwise ok. Was your exam more exciting?"

Nick smiles at her attempts at composure but the room's shadows can't hide the telltale signs of arousal in her eyes.

"Well everyone showed up. That's always promising."

Abandoning her fingers Nick moves to nuzzle the crook of her neck. He catches one of Natalie's earlobes between his teeth and nips lightly.

Not needing further invitation Natalie straddles him easily, nestling herself comfortably onto his lap, her legs dangle on either side of the stool. Nick seeks out her mouth and she welcomes him in a deep and thorough kiss. His body instantly reacts to her proximity, demanding more. The vampire craves the unique elixir of her blood. The man wants the comfort of her embrace.

Breaking their kiss, she bears her neck to him but rather than sink his aching fangs in Nick caresses the fine skin with his lips. Natalie always knows instinctively what he needs but he holds off. What she offers is only part of the equation.

He eases the collar of her robe aside until it pools at her hips. Grasping her waist, his hands travel northward until they grace the curve of her breasts, then circle to cup them. Natalie reacts with a lazy smile. A quiet sigh escapes her lips and she arches forward to encourage a more thorough exploration.

Ducking down, Nick seeks out a nipple and Natalie gasps in pleasure. Contact with one of his fangs almost releases some of her precious blood into his mouth. Her movements urge him to take what he needs. She wants this but Nick steadies her.

Encircling Natalie's face in his hands he whispers, "Not yet."

There's understanding in her eyes. The illusion of mortality is what Nick craves. Not just the one that is presented outside the walls of their home. Nat glances out the nearby window before turning back to him. The horizon continues to lighten with the approaching day.

His shirt is quickly surrendered to a nearby chair. Natalie lifts herself just enough so that together they can lower the zipper of his jeans and divest him of them and his boxers. Her robe drops unceremoniously to the floor.

Fingers tease, stroke and claim. Shy smiles turn seductive. Together they arouse.

The vampire is kept at bay but not forgotten. A hint of razor sharp fangs, a lover viewed through a golden hued gaze, a moan of desire turns into a hungry growl. The vampire is at their doorstep, demanding its own satisfaction.

The still lightening horizon makes its presence known as well.

Fingers wrapped around him, Natalie guides him in before she sinks down with excruciating slowness.

It's absolute bliss to be surrounded by her like this. She is a comfort that is Natalie and solely Natalie.

Nick lets her set the pace as Natalie begins to roll her hips in a tantalizing way. Her head is thrown back and eyes shut in her own battle of concentration and control.

Nick is more than content to simply watch her. He wants to push this as far the vampire will let them.

Far sooner than he'd like their lovemaking reaches a boiling point and Nick can no longer control himself. He draws Natalie against him and swiftly sinks his fangs into her neck, drinking his fill.

Nick revels in the sweetness of her blood and in the ecstasy of his orgasm. Natalie is everything to him and if for now this is all that they are allowed, then a life in the sunlight will have to wait. Unfortunately so will the dreams that Natalie's blood reveals to him. Dreams he shares.

Sun kissed children running around in an open lawn. Grass stained jeans and scraped knees. He and Natalie roused from deep sleep by their demanding offspring's requests for pancakes and Saturday morning cartoons.

He's seen them before but it had been a while. Today, their stray laughter lingers even after Natalie's blood disappears from his palate.

The sensation of twin fangs on his neck signals Natalie's own climax. She has a voracious appetite and it's always augmented by their passionate lovemaking.

Golden eyes filled with sadness look back at him when Natalie pulls back. She knows what her blood revealed. The slightest hint of fangs are still visible in her mouth.

Nick kisses her tenderly. He wants her to know her dreams are no more folly then the dreams of mortality he's harbored for centuries. The darkness they share doesn't prevent those types of realities. It merely prolongs them.

But first Nick reaches for the remote that will seal off the room. It's a set up of metal shutters similar to the one he had in Toronto. He has to protect Natalie. Fledgling vampires have no tolerance for even the early sun's weak rays.

Natalie moves to lift herself off but Nick wraps his arms around her.

"Those children," be begins. "They may still be in our future."

"You really believe that?" her voice brimming with skepticism. "It's a stupid thing for me to hang on to. Five years since _everything_ and you'd think I would've let go of things like that by now. I mean really, Nick, how many times did you see me worrying over my biological clock back in Toronto? None."

"It's not stupid, Nat. These things creep up where we least expect them…the kids at the accident?"

She ignores his inquiry and frees herself from his embrace. Her forgotten robe is around her shoulders before he can slow her.

"Nick, I believe a way back to mortality is out there and while I don't regret joining you, children with you is not one of the things I'm realistically holding out for. People change and who's to say that in, I don't know, twenty, thirty, or a hundred years we'll still feel the same way when we find a cure."

Natalie's concerns are real but her pragmatic words are in direct conflict with the dreams her blood revealed. Rising from the stool, his state of undress of little concern, Nick approaches his lover of five years but his friend of far longer.

"Nat, you're right. People do change. They grow apart. I've experienced it first hand. But I also believe that together we're stronger than we are individually. And because people can also grow together. I don't know what the future holds for us but _you_ are the person I want to live my life with. I want _you_ to be the mother of my children. We'll get there. I have faith that we will."

Natalie smiles at the last part of his statement. "Always the optimist, huh Nick?"

"I like to think we take turns," he replies, kissing Natalie's temple and then her lips. "And I'm not giving you up without a fight. I have every intention of growing old with you, ok?"

She doesn't answer. Instead Natalie closes the small distance between them, wraps her arms around his waist, and lays her head on his chest.

"I want this to work, so badly, I want this to work."

In the silence of the room her words are barely a whisper but Nick hears them loud and clear.

"It _will_ work," Natalie asserts and she looks up at him with a smile.

"You know," Nick traces the curve of her face with his fingers. "I'm in need of a shower and there's a very appealing bed upstairs if you care to join me."

Nick flashes the smile he knows she can't resist.

"In the bed or in the shower?" Natalie replies playfully. The brief melancholy that had come over her fades away like the night.

"Both," His fingers drop to some stray blood on Natalie's neck that remained after his fang marks healed. "And because after today I'm sequestering myself in the study. There are exams to grade, papers to read, and grades are due at the end of the week."

Nick had begun to back Natalie towards the staircase and they now stood at its base.

"Oh the drudgery of an academic."

There is teasing mock sympathy in her voice and he loves it.

"So what do you say?"

"Make it a bath instead…a really, really long one." Natalie tugs at his hand and Nick follows her up the stairs willingly.

And outside their modest home dawn arrives to Nova Scotia.

-30-


End file.
